


Dark to Light

by Crazy_Pairing_Person



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Awkwardness, Bonding, Drama, Enemies to Friends, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Romance, F/F, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Romance, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-06
Updated: 2016-10-18
Packaged: 2018-08-16 14:18:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8105647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crazy_Pairing_Person/pseuds/Crazy_Pairing_Person
Summary: A normal battle with the Paladins, that was what Haggar had thought. They had come for some prisoner, who she guessed was the Champion's friend or something. It didn't matter. She was supposed to defeat them, like Zarkon wanted. She was supposed to capture Voltron, like Zarkon wanted.
It wasn't supposed to end like it had ended. She wasn't supposed to end up being their hostage.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I went through a few title names before settling on this one. I'm still not 100% into it of course but it's a hell of a lot less cheesy than my first choice...
> 
> Anyway, yeah. If you're reading this, I hope you'll enjoy it. Just let me know what you guys think!

Haggar glared at her captors with cold, distrusting eyes. They didn't seem to like her any better, considering the distance all of them were putting between her and them. They called themselves Paladins? Pathetic.

"How  _dare_ you take me as a hostage?" she snapped. Immediately, all but one of them moved their hands to their weapons, eyes narrowed. The Black Paladin, the _Champion_ , clenched his human hand, as if trying to hold himself back. The hand she'd given him hung limply at his side.

"Paladins, do not touch your weapons," the Altean princess spoke, and they all turned to her rather than Haggar. She approached Haggar carefully, and Haggar narrowed her eyes. The princess carefully placed a hand on Haggar's shoulder, barely there. Ready to pull away if Haggar became violent. "It was not our original intent to take you," she said slowly. Haggar scoffed to herself, but it didn't deter the princess. "But, as it is, I do not think we can allow you to roam free around the castle."

Haggar watched as the male Altean brought a set of handcuffs over to the princess. She growled at the mere sight of them. "Don't you  _dare_ even  _think_ of putting those on me or I'll-"

"You'll what?" the Green Paladin snapped. Though their voice was firm, Haggar could see in their eyes that this one was scared of her. "I've upgraded the shield around the castle with Coran's help, so guess what? You don't have  _any_ of your weird magic power as long as you're here." They said it quickly, all in one breath, wanting her to know that she was powerless.

Haggar hissed at them, and just like that, the Green Paladin lost their false confidence and hid behind the Red Paladin. Haggar didn't bother trying to use her 'weird magic power'. She could tell just from how the area around here felt; it wouldn't get her anywhere. It was pressing down on her, limiting her abilities. She'd known that before the Green Paladin had even bothered to speak up. But she'd think of _something_ soon.

She let the princess attach a hand cuff to her left wrist, though not without a low growl as it clicked into place. The princess held up the other cuff. "Who would like to go first?"

"I'm going to go check on my brother," the Green Paladin said, and they scurried off without another word. This 'brother', Haggar guessed, was the prisoner they'd attempted to hug while they freed him and the others.

The Black Paladin only shook his head, taking a step away from Haggar. She growled low in her throat. She was the one who  _gave_ him such power. How  _dare_ he act so  _ungrateful_.

The Red Paladin seemed to hesitate, but shook his head. Haggar could see his ears flattening against his head. Did he think he was better than her somehow? If he'd only look in a mirror he would know that he wasn't any different from her or any of the Galran soldiers. Those glowing eyes and that purple skin was proof.

The Yellow Paladin was nearly shaking. Haggar was utterly disgusted with all of them. How had the Galran soldiers ever lost to  _these_ weaklings?!

The Blue Paladin stepped forward and let the princess attach him to the other handcuff, an uncertain look on his face as he avoided Haggar's gaze. As soon as he was attached, Haggar hissed at him. He jerked back at the sound, and she grinned deviously. That had felt good.

"I'm afraid," the princess said, "that wherever Lance goes, you'll be going today."

"Hmph." She refused to dignify anything that any of them said with any sort of answer. She stared at the handcuff, wondering how everything had gone so wrong.

* * *

_There they were, taking the prisoners. The Paladins ushered all of the prisoners out one by one, unaware of Haggar watching from the shadows. That was fine, she could wait. She watched as the Green Paladin hugged one of the prisoners - but then he jerked away from it, his eyes wide. He had been affected in his time here, and Haggar watched with glee as that realization came to the Green Paladin._

_She came from the shadows, grabbing on to the Champion's human arm. In a fit of shock, and maybe terror, he punched her across the face. The Green Paladin used their bayard, touching it to her shoulder and letting the painful electricity flow through her. She must have blacked out, and then she was being carried by the Yellow Paladin. They were all screaming at each other over what to do with her. She pretended to still be unconscious, waiting to see what they would decide._

_Then the Altean princess said something to do with diplomatic relations, but Haggar almost fell right back asleep halfway through trying to listen. In any case, she ended up being taken with them. She could have tried to stop it, but she didn't have much to work with, considering this man carrying her like a sack over his shoulder. If she shocked him or hit him, she'd only end up dropped on her head. So she went along with it, pretending to be unconscious until they brought her onto their ship._

* * *

"-I, of course, will take Shiro's place. Is that alright?"

Haggar blinked, suddenly realizing that they were talking about who was going to watch over her... Like she needed a damn caretaker!

The Black Paladin nodded gratefully to the princess. She gave him a comforting smile, then looked down at the electronic pad in her hand. "Right, then. So tomorrow, Lance, you should pass her over to Hunk around lunch time. Hunk can pass her over to Coran the next day. Coran will pass her to me, and then-"

"I'll take the fifth watch," the Red Paladin said, shifting his weight as he gazed cautiously at Haggar. She glared at him, and he suddenly looked back to the princess, his posture tense. Haggar rolled her eyes. The princess nodded.

"Very well then. One of you should let Pidge know they have the sixth watch."

"Hopefully we won't need much more than three," the Blue Paladin, 'Lance' said. "I mean, what  _are_ we going to do with her?" He looked uncomfortable, shifting his weight while he looked at the princess. "We're not keeping her, right?"

"She's not a pet," the Red Paladin said. "But I definitely agree with Lance. We should find some place to drop her off."

"We're not _dropping her off_ anywhere," the princess said firmly. "As I said when we brought her here, leaving her anywhere, conscious or otherwise, will not help anything."

"But keeping her will?" the Red Paladin argued, his eyes narrowing at the princess. Haggar watched with glee as he glared at her, hoping that he'd give in to his anger. He noticed her excited look, and backed away from the princess, his face now horrified. "Never mind," he said softly. "Do whatever is necessary."

The princess frowned. "Keith-"

"I'm fine," he said, his voice tense. "I'm... I'm going to train."

He walked out of the room, his steps quick, posture tense. He wouldn't even glance in Haggar's direction. 'Lance' glared at her, however, and she hissed at him in retaliation. He flinched, but surprisingly enough he didn't stop glaring at her. "You're awful," he said.

She stared blankly at him, unsure of how to respond to that. They were the ones who had kidnapped her. Did they really believe that  _she_ was the awful one? How pitiful. She chose to ignore what he'd said and yanked on the handcuffs, causing him to lose his balance. She snickered when he yelped and tried to stop himself from falling on his face.

* * *

It wasn't fun anymore.

Since Haggar was attached to him, he wasn't allowed to train. So the Blue Paladin was wandering aimlessly around the ship, with nothing to do. And he dragged her along as well, with a frosty silence between them. She glared down at the floor. "When do you go to bed?" she asked. She hoped that she would be detached from him, even briefly, to give her a moment to try and get out.

However, he scoffed. "Not for several hours, witch lady." Witch lady? She glared at him even harder, already envisioning how painful she could make his death. "Anyway," he continued, pointedly ignoring her glare, "we'll be attached then, too. I hope you like sleeping on the floor because there's no way I'm letting you sleep in my bed."

Haggar clenched her jaw. So she'd be forcibly attached to a sleeping person. Apparently the amount of trust they had for her was essentially nonexistent. "Quiznak," she whispered. She hoped that some of the soldiers would come for her soon.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well... This isn't necessarily my favorite first chapter I've ever written but it is better than I thought it might turn out. It'll get better soon, don't worry. :) Just hang in there, my readers! Have faith! Your faith helps me write! X3


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so excited to get to some really good parts of this story... But I have to write the parts that are in between... Ugh...
> 
> Like not that the in between parts won't be good it's just that I'm not excited about them as some other parts and I feel like the ones I'm excited about might be better... Does that make sense?

"Don't you have a holding cell or something?"

'Lance' glared at her. Glare number twenty-three in the past hour. How sad that her entertainment had devolved so quickly into seeing how often someone would glare at her.

"Unfortunately," he said, his voice coated in sarcasm, "the Alteans didn't take very many hostages. The only thing close to a holding cell is an extra sleeping chamber, and  _that's_ currently taken by Matt."

"Is 'Matt' the green one?" she asked, mostly just asking to irritate him.

The Blue Paladin groaned and smacked his head on a wall. "Never mind."

Nearby footsteps, ones not belonging to 'Lance', made Haggar's ears flick up. She turned her head and found the Red Paladin heading towards them. He froze, and stared at her. 'Lance' turned and looked at him, his face brightening.

"Keith! Thank god! She's driving me  _crazy_!"

The Red Paladin blinked and looked at Lance, clearly doing his best not to focus on Haggar's presence. She growled low in her throat, utterly insulted. She didn't exactly like being ignored.

"How'd your training go?" Lance asked when Keith didn't speak for a moment.

"It was... Fine."

Haggar inwardly smirked. It  _hadn't_ gone fine, not by a Paladin's standard. She didn't have to be there to know it. If he continued to fight and feed his anger, it would only be a matter of time before he joined her and the other Galran soldiers.

"Oh, good," Lance said, unaware of what Haggar knew. "You're not slacking off without me, are you?"

"No." Keith almost seemed to smile, but Haggar didn't care enough to look closer. "Anyway, we're about to eat dinner. Allura wanted to know if you were going to eat with us or..."

Or if he'd be eating away from everyone, with Haggar attached to him. Lance looked at her, and tugged a bit on the handcuffs. "I don't think we'll be able to eat with everyone. It'd make Shiro uncomfortable."

It took Haggar a moment to connect the name with the face of the Black Paladin in her mind. She immediately scowled. "Why would he care? Do you Paladins actually eat together?"

"Yes," Keith said, staring at her like she'd asked what purple looked like. "Is that a shock?"

The Galran soldiers didn't eat together. They ate separately in their own quarters. "You're all pitiful," she said, instead of answering the question.

"Says the hostage," Lance said, eyes narrowed. "Are you really in a position to call people pitiful right now?"

"I hope you die a slow and painful death," she said, yanking on the handcuffs. Lance yelped again, and Haggar snickered as she watched him attempt to regain his balance. That was fun.

"I'll go tell Allura to bring dinner to your room," Keith said. He sighed, then turned on his heel and walked away.

Lance sighed. "I can't even be with my boyfriend," he said, "because of you."

"What have I done?" Haggar asked. "You lot were the ones to kidnap me-"

"We didn't kidnap you!" Lance groaned and hit his head on the wall again. "Never mind. Let's just get to my room so you don't go making anyone else upset."

* * *

Lance ate his food silently, and uncomfortably, with Haggar staring blankly at him the entire time. He looked up and realized that she hadn't touched her food. "Aren't you gonna eat?" he asked, with a biting tone. She looked down at the green slop in her bowl, and shook her head.

"I'm not hungry," she said calmly. "Shockingly, being kidnapped does not exactly bring up one's appetite."

He didn't comment on the 'kidnapping' this time. "Whatever, witch lady."

"Paladin," she snapped back in the same mocking tone.

An uneasy silence fell, and Haggar stared blankly at the wall. She ran through all that she'd seen of the ship in her mind - not much. Some windows that might be easy to break, but then what? Get sucked into space? She'd rather stay a hostage.

"Have they decided what to do with me?" she asked, crossing her arms. She ignored Lance's startled yelp when she jolted the cuff on his wrist.

"Not yet," he said through his teeth, and yanked his arm back. She glared at him, wondering how easily his head could snap off his body.

Just before she moved to test it, the door opened. She and Lance turned and found the Yellow Paladin, ready to take their bowls.

"Lance, didn't you let her eat?" he asked, looking at the bowl that Haggar hadn't touched.

"She wasn't hungry." Lance shrugged. "Do you really care, Hunk? I mean, after all she's done-"

"Allura said that we have to treat her nicely, though." 'Hunk' frowned at Lance and then smiled awkwardly at Haggar. She glared and watched as he flinched at it. "I'll leave your food here, then. You can eat it whenever you want."

Hunk took Lance's empty bowl and left the room. Haggar found herself glaring at the door even after it had shut.

"Geez," Lance said. "If that's your face when people are being nice to you, I'd hate to see it when someone's mean."

"He wasn't being nice," she said. "He was patronizing me. I can tell the difference, you know." She didn't see why any of them seemed to think Haggar was so stupid. She was smarter than all of them, and she'd find a way out of there, and crush them all like the pathetic worms they were!

"No he wasn't," Lance said, oblivious to Haggar's murderous thoughts. "I know Hunk, and even if he's super uncomfortable he  _always_ tries to be nice to someone. Even evil creatures like you, apparently."

Haggar shook her head and went back to staring at the door. If they wanted to play 'nice' then she'd go and let them, but there was no way she was letting them fool her.

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're still here reading this then I just want to say thank you! *bows* Enjoy my dears!

Haggar stared silently at the ceiling, trying to calm herself down enough to fall asleep. The sound of Lance's breathing was unnerving, though. She wouldn't be able to sleep with someone else in the room with her. The floor was too cold and hard. She didn't have a pillow or a blanket. It was just too uncomfortable, she'd be lucky to fall asleep for even a second...

One idea crossed her mind briefly, but she shoved it out. She wasn't so desperate yet. And hell, even if she was, she'd rather lose sleep than do that.

"Mmh..."

Lance blinked his eyes open, and looked down at Haggar. He pushed the headphones on his ears down to his neck. She looked back blankly. "What?" she said.

"Why aren't you asleep?" he asked, his voice slow and tired.

"I can't sleep." Her eyes narrowed accusingly. "Your breathing is too loud."

"Sorry for breathing," he snapped. He hesitated, and then he threw down a pillow in Haggar's face. "There. Is that better?"

It wasn't. Haggar shifted and moved the pillow under her head, but it still felt like she wouldn't be able to sleep. "No. Leave me alone."

"I can take my pillow back," Lance said, but he made no move to do so. "Goodnight, witch lady."

"I have a name," she said through clenched teeth. Honestly, being called 'witch lady' was getting old fast.

"Don't care." Lance yawned and put the headphones back on his ears. He settled his head back down and closed his eyes.

Haggar sighed and tried to shift so that she could be more comfortable, to no avail. Probably because of her arm being handcuffed to Lance's. She couldn't move it too much without almost yanking him down from the bed. Not that she had any qualms with that, but he'd probably never shut up if she did.

She surrendered herself to a night without any sleep, and ran through everything in her mind. There had to be some way for her to get out of this place...

* * *

Haggar was silent as Lance attached her to Hunk, and he sighed in relief. "Thank god. I'll go train with Keith. Later!"

Lance ran from the kitchen, and Haggar watched silently as he did. After a minute of just staring at the empty doorway, she looked down at the cuffs. "Well, I hope you have something more interesting than walking aimlessly around the ship," she said wryly. Hunk smiled awkwardly at her.

"I'm experimenting with food," he said, gesturing with his free hand to the ingredients he had laid out on the counter. "I don't know if that's really interesting, though."

Haggar's eyes fell on a purple spiky fruit. "Unless you know how to properly prepare that," she said, "I wouldn't use it in anything."

"Why?" Hunk looked at the fruit with a raised eyebrow. "Is there something wrong with it?"

"Most of it would be poison to humans." Haggar shrugged dismissively. "It's not as if I particularly care, but I'd rather not be cuffed to a dead man."

Hunk picked up the fruit, turning it over in his hands. It barely fit in his palm, and the large brownish-green stem was as long as his middle finger. It was perfectly ripened, then, Haggar noted. That meant it was even more deadly. The juice could dissolve his tongue if Hunk just took a single bite. "How would I prepare it?" Hunk asked. Haggar blinked, coming from her thoughts.

"You'd have to cut off the skin," she said. "And then take out the seed in the very center. That's the only part that humans and Alteans could eat safely."

"That doesn't sound too hard," Hunk said with a smile. He put down the fruit with a shrug.

"The seed is very small." She picked the fruit up and examined it. "Barely the size of the tip of your own finger, and it's nearly the same color as the fruit itself. But it's used in many delicacies. If you managed to do it, you could make some wonderful dishes with it." She brushed her thumb over the rubbery spikes, and she could almost feel the toxins flowing through it.

Haggar handed the fruit back to Hunk, and he took it with a thoughtful smile. "Well, I guess I can try using it later, then," he said. "I don't know that I could do it without hurting myself." He put it down on the counter where it had been before. "I have plenty of other things here to try, anyway."

"And half of it is near useless or deadly," Haggar said. She stared at him, unimpressed. "Doesn't anyone try to help you when you're gathering these items?"

Hunk looked sheepish. Haggar sighed and shook her head. "Do you want to help me?" he asked.

"Better than sitting here waiting for you to accidentally kill yourself and everyone else," she said.

Haggar knew plenty about all the things that Hunk had managed to gather. Though she and her fellow druids had used most of it for poisons or things of that nature, she could easily apply that knowledge to cooking. The shimmering yellow fruit caused rashes unless mixed with the teal goop that came from certain trees. Hunk said that he'd ask Coran to help him gather of it some next time they were near those trees. The pebble-sized dark brown vegetables would have to be used soon or they would go bad, and then they'd start releasing a noxious gas.

"Alien ingredients are weird," Hunk said. He picked up a large dark green fruit and showed it to Haggar. "What about this? It kinda looks like a plum."

"I don't know what a plum is," she said, and took it from Hunk. "This should be safe to eat, and the leaves can be used to make tea." She frowned for a moment. "Actually, the tea might kill you humans. But for Alteans it's relaxing and can help with insomnia."

"Cool," Hunk said with a bright grin. "Thanks for helping me with this."

Haggar paused. Helping? Was that what she'd been doing? She just didn't want Hunk to mistakenly poison her. But, now that she thought about it, most of these things weren't harmful to Galrans...

Oh, wait. Keith. "Some of these aren't actually deadly to Galrans. I'd still be careful with your Red Paladin, though." She picked up one of the small brown vegetables. "Also, these may cause him intense pain. You shouldn't let him eat anything with them in it."

"Got it." Hunk nodded. He looked over everything that was on the counter. "Huh. That's everything, I guess." He tilted his head slightly. "I thought that would take longer."

"I'm surprised it didn't." Haggar shrugged.

"Thanks again." Hunk beamed at her, as though she wasn't the enemy. Haggar raised an eyebrow. "Do you want to help me cook?"

"I doubt your fellow Paladins would eat anything they thought I had touched."

Hunk blinked. "Oh. Right."

Haggar rolled her eyes and waved her free hand dismissively at him. "Go on and do whatever. I promise not to touch anything." The second part of it was said mockingly, she made sure of that. Though Hunk had previously acted friendly, now that he seemed to remember who she was, he looked like he doubted everything she had told him about the food.

Haggar watched, barely keeping track of the endless ticks as Hunk mixed and chopped and boiled. She noticed that even though he didn't touch anything that she'd said was deadly, he still hesitated on things that she'd said were safe. And who could really blame him? The fact was, they didn't trust her. She was their enemy.

She glared at the purple spiky fruit like it was the source of everything she hated while she waited for Hunk to hurry up and finish.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sincerely sorry about the action/fighting scene being as terrible as it is, but I'd like any tips on that subject that anyone wants to give me. (That, you know, DON'T involve death threats or swear words.)

Haggar was barely able to stop herself from grinning. The Galran forces were attacking. They'd come for her, finally!

The Paladins were rushing to get into their suits. Oh, but they couldn't leave her here, and she knew that. They knew it too, apparently, because they didn't head to their Lions and looked to the Alteans for help.

"Allura, what do we do with her?" Keith asked.

"My name is Haggar," she whispered, no one replied or even heard her.

Allura seemed hesitant and confused. She knew what Haggar knew. If they formed Voltron, they'd be leaving Haggar there with two Alteans that the Galrans wanted dead. If they didn't, the Galrans would only get closer and closer and would take Voltron  _and_ Haggar.

* * *

Well. This wasn't what Haggar had expected.

She ducked a blast from a Galran gun. In the process she jostled Keith, who had been forcibly attached to her. He glared at her but focused on the Galran soldiers again.

"That could be you," she whispered. Keith tensed. Oh, a reaction, then! She smirked to herself. "You could always join them. Join  _us_."

Keith clenched his sword. "Or _you_ could join _us_."

The words shocked Haggar as much as they shocked the being who said them. They looked at each other, their yellow, glowing eyes wide in shock.

Haggar turned away and ducked behind a corner, dragging Keith along.

"As if I would ever do so," she said. She was dangerously close to strangling him. Her, join them... The very idea... She shook her head to get it out of her mind.

Down the hall, she saw the Champion punching his way through soldier after soldier... With the arm she'd given him. She almost felt a swell of pride, except that her creation wasn't being used on the ones she'd thought it would.

"Just don't become dead weight," Keith hissed. That was all the warning she got before he ran towards Shiro, leaving her tripping over herself trying to keep up.

When he got to Shiro's side, Keith swung his sword mercilessly at the Galran soldiers. Even so, he was careful not to hit Haggar. Haggar growled low in her throat. She didn't move except when Keith forced her to move, or when Shiro would bump into her accidentally.

Actually... Shiro wasn't trying to hit her or Keith, either. Even though both of them looked like his enemy. It was... Strange.

Then, she saw movements in the shadow. She turned her head to track it.

Ah, they had found some of her cloaking experiments. She smiled a little. They planned to attack Keith and Shiro when they couldn't see it. Oh, it filled her with such pride!

It was fading, though... She saw the soldiers under those cloaks starting to become visible. Prototypes. They couldn't have even found some of her more recent works.

...The weapon was visible, now, and the soldier almost. But when she saw the weapon, something inside her snapped.

_You could join us._

Before Haggar realized what she was doing, she pushed Keith aside and attacked the shadowed soldier. She felt power swelling through her and let the electricity flow to the soldier, and let him die at her hands.

After she had done so, she looked at the corpse for just a moment. She hadn't known him personally, but there was something about killing someone who was once an ally that almost felt... Numbing.

Then, she looked at Shiro and Keith. Both who were staring at her in shock. At first, she thought it to be that she'd just killed her own ally and saved them...

But then she realized that Keith was further than he should have been. She looked down, and saw that the cuffs were broken.

"I must have done that while attacking him," Haggar muttered to herself.

"You just saved us." Keith blinked slowly as he said that. "You..."

"The control room should be down this corridor," Haggar said, not wanting Keith to finish that sentence. "You can use it to turn off the comms for all the soldiers. That should buy the others some time, and then we can go down and help them fend off any other soldiers."

"We?" Shiro said. "Seriously?"

Haggar stared back, unblinking. Keith grabbed on to her arm. "You lead the way," he said. "Shiro, can you stay here for look out?"

Shiro hesitated. "Sure."

Haggar led Keith down to the control room. She knew the layout of all the Galran ships like the back of her own hand. Keith wouldn't stop looking at her.

"What?" she said after a while. "I'm taking you up on your offer."

Keith blinked. "My..." Then, he seemed to recall.

"It was only a few ticks ago," she said as she opened the door to the control room. "Surely your memory isn't that bad?"

"No," Keith said. "I'm just... surprised."

Haggar hummed, mostly to just keep herself from thinking too much about it. She killed Galran soldiers. She killed her own allies. She protected Paladins, she...

She was going to have to join them.

Haggar disabled all Galran communication systems, and then left with Keith at her tail.

"Do they treat you well?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"Do they..."

She trailed off. Why did it matter? He had not committed the acts that she had. They had no reason to be suspicious of him.

"Never mind."

They came back to Shiro - who still stood an arms length away from her. All three of them ran to help Lance, Hunk and Pidge on the lower levels of the ship.

* * *

Haggar laid on her back, staring at the ceiling. Too bright, she thought. But she was too exhausted to even try to cover her eyes.

"I'm happy to have your help in the war," Allura said, slightly muffled. She was looking through a closet, searching for something for Haggar to wear at the party tonight.

Party.

"I shouldn't be going to any party," Haggar said. "I don't deserve to be praised by anyone. I don't want to be praised."

Allura laughed softly. "But leaving your people is not something easy to do." She pulled out a dark blue gown. Haggar sat up, playing along with the princess's dressup game for now. "The people we have liberated tonight know this."

She handed Haggar the gown and turned around to allow her some privacy to change. "Even so," Haggar said, "I am, or once was, part of the ones who terrorized people you liberated. I do not deserve to take part in the festivities."

"They understand that Keith is not like the violent, angry Galran soldiers. And they will accept you as they have accepted him."

Haggar groaned inwardly as she pulled her arms through the sleeves of the gown. Her long white hair flowed down behind her, and it exposed her face in a way that she wasn't comfortable with. She much preferred her cloaks and hoods, easy to hide behind and create airs of mystery and terror.

She turned to Allura and crossed her arms, refusing to meet her eyes. "How do I look?" she asked, and the princess turned.

After a moment of silent scrutinizing, she spoke. "You look very nice. But... Uncomfortable."

"I don't like having my face exposed," Haggar said, angrier than intended.

But, Allura didn't seem to take any offense to that. "Why not? It's beautiful." Haggar flinched at the compliment. Allura wasn't deterred. "Let's just find you some shoes to go with the dress."

Haggar watched almost helplessly as Allura turned back to the closet and started searching. "Why must I be dressed like this?" she asked instead.

"Because it is a party!" Allura said, as if that was the answer. Haggar sighed, and Allura turned with a slight frown. "Only one hundred ticks, okay? One hundred ticks, and then if you still wish to leave I will escort you to your own room in the castle and you can stay alone for the rest of the night."

Haggar considered that. It was certainly a better option than having to stay for the entire party. "Fine," she said.

* * *

She actually ended up staying longer than one hundred ticks. No one attacked her, physically or verbally, as she'd expected. They didn't shy away from her either. Well, Shiro did...

But those that had been freed thanked her over and over. Haggar briefly saw Allura grinning at her from across the room. Ugh.

Eventually, she needed a break though. She wasn't used to such positive attention. Such happy people, so many grinning faces. And this  _gown_...

Haggar slipped away into an empty hallway, and sat down on the cold floor. The idea from a few nights ago, when she'd been trying to sleep in Lance's room, came to mind again.

Meditation... Galrans hadn't done that since the days when they had allied with the Alteans. But if she was allying herself with those of Voltron, then...

She sighed. Worth a try, then. She took a deep breath in. She held it for a moment, and tried to picture something to stir her anger. She pictured Commander Sendak mocking her for her treachery. He was probably doing that right now to Zarkon... The very idea...

No. Meditation, right. She kept the image in mind, and with every exhale, she let the thought dissolve further and further, until it was gone.

Haggar felt... Calmer. It was like she was floating, almost.

Then, there was a cough, and the calm was broken. She jolted and accidentally hit her head on the wall.

"After you almost tripped me, I'd say that's karma," a familiar voice said. Haggar looked up, and saw Lance smirking at her. "What are you doing out here?" he asked.

"Meditating," she said. "The method hasn't been used by our kind in many centuries. I thought it time to try it again."

Lance wasn't smirking anymore. "Do you think that could help Keith?"

She tilted her head. "Pardon?"

Lance sighed. "He's really stressed. And that makes him train. Training stresses him more. It's a terrible cycle, and I just want..."

He trailed off, but Haggar understood. "It could help him. I will speak to him and try to teach him."

Lance seemed relieved. "Thanks." He cleared his throat, and started to step away. "Um, Allura said that if you're ready to go to sleep, she'll take you to your own room."

Haggar thought for a moment. "Okay. Where is she?"

"This way."

Haggar stood and followed Lance. Sleep... Yes, she could use some after the day she's had.

 


End file.
